Sad news to report. Art Zoller Wagner, one of the founders of this website and the person in charge of all technical details of the site, recently suffered the death of his father, John Wagner. I have made a memorial contribution, in memory of Art's father, to

and I invite you to do the same. This is a charity that has special importance to Art, who has devoted a great many hours to the website. As of today, all contributions are being matched by an anonymous donor. Normally, I would not post details about any of our lives except my own, and I post this only with Art's explicit permission.

If you are in the EEUU, your donation is tax deductible. I have no idea what the tax consequences may be al otro llau del charco or in Mexico or Cuba or South America.

Having lost both of my own parents within the last few years, I have a good understanding of what memorial contributions or even a simple expression of support and sorrow can mean. It feels good and comforting to know that we have friends who care about us. Even a very brief note is comforting. Please do whatever you can.

Thank you all for your messages of support here and by snail mail and email. Bob's right: it touched us that so many of you donated to Opportunity Builders, Inc. Thank you!

My dad had been dealing with the early stages of Alzheimer's, but this was unexpected. We don't know what caused it, but his blood platelet count dropped extremely low and caused a massive cerebral hemorrhage.

My father was a smart, hard-working, and unusually humble man. He loved studying maps, traveling, and helping others. He was very active (and thus well-loved) in his local church. All in all, his was a life well-lived.

To his credit, he enjoyed visiting Asturias and my mom's cousins there. He was also very supportive of my Asturianista interests. I suppose he married into being an honorary Asturian!